The Chicago Society for Space Studies is a supporter of the newspace paradigm. If you are unfamiliar with the newspace concept, it is the name given to that area of space endeavors that
emphasizes private over government space development and exploration. Quoting from the book NewSpace Nation: America’s Emerging Entrepreneurial Space Industry by Jeff Krukin, newspace
primarily means entrepreneurs and their small- or medium-size firms having these characteristics:
- Space-related products and services are sold with a fixed-price (versus the traditional space industry’s cost-plus government procurement model)
- Customers include individual consumers, corporations, and government agencies
- The company is funded primarily by the owner(s), angel investors, and/or venture capital
- A significant portion of the company’s revenue is earned from non-government entities
- When doing business with NASA it is more likely to be within the format of a Space Act Agreement rather than the more odious, costly, bureaucratic, and oversight-heavy Federal Acquisition Regulations process
The following list should not be considered to be a complete list of relevant companies and organizations. Resources are organized into the following categories:
- NewSpace Companies
- Commercial Spaceports
- Astronaut Training
- Space Tourism Agencies
- NewSpace Releated Conferences
- Space Organizations
- Commercial Space Books
NewSpace Companies
| Armadillo Aerospace www.armadilloaerospace.com Rocket company founded in 2000 by John Carmack. A winner of the Lunar Lander Challenge. Devloping the Stig rocket. |
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| Bigelow Aerospace www.bigelowaerospace.com Maker of inflatable space habitats. Genesis 1 test habitat launched to orbit in 2006. |
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| Blue Origin www.blueorigin.com Blue Origin was founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com. Developing the New Shepard VTVL suborbital passenger carrying vehicle. |
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| Celestis Memorial Spaceflights www.celestis.com Service company for launching loved ones remains into outer space or to the Moon |
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| Deep Space Industries deepspaceindustries.com Deep Space Industries plans to mine asteroids. Initial missions will be conducted by a small fleet of lightweight vehicles dubbed Fireflies which will return samples to Earth. |
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| Golden Spike goldenspikecompany.com Has the goal of establishing commercial human flights to the Moon. CEO Alan Stern’s goal is for a first flight by 2020. |
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| Inspiration Mars Foundation inspirationmars.org A non-profit launching a human flyby mission to Mars with a target launch date of 2018. |
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| Mars One mars-one.com/en/ This company proposes to send a crew of 4 on a one way trip to Mars |
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| Masten Space Systems www.masten-space.com Reusable launch vehicle company, competed in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge |
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| Moon Express www.moonexpress.com Plans to send robotic spacecraft to the Moon for ongoing exploration and commercial development. |
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| Orbital Sciences www.orbital.com Founded in 1982, Orbital has a stable of launch vehicles and has conducted 63 space launch missions since 1990 |
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| Planetary Resources www.planetaryresources.com Asteroid mining company |
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| Reaction Engines www.reactionengines.co.uk Suborbital spacecraft builder of the Skylon Spaceplane which uses SABRE engine technology |
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| Scaled Composites www.scaled.com Builder of WhiteKnightOne and SpaceShipOne and winner of the X Prize |
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| Shackleton Energy Company www.shackletonenergy.com Establishing a propellant depot architecture utilizing lunar polar ice as source for LOX/LH2 propellant. |
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| Sierra Nevada www.sncorp.com Maker of the Dream Chaser vertical takeoff, horizontal landing spaceplane |
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| Space Exploration Technologies Corp. SPACEX www.spacex.com Builder of the Falcon series of launch vehicles and the Dragon module. Founded by Elon Musk. |
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| Stratolaunch Systems www.stratolaunch.com A Paul Allen project that builds on Scaled Composities SpaceShipOne, which Allen funded. First test flight is targeted for 2016. |
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| The Spaceship Company www.thespaceshipcompany.com Builder of WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo, the company is now owned by Virgin Galactic. |
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| Virgin Galactic www.virgingalactic.com Sir Richard Branson’s space tourism company providing suborbital flights using WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo |
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| XCOR Aerospace www.xcor.com Makers of the Lynx spaceplane |
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| Zero Gravity Corporation (ZERO-G) www.gozerog.com Providers of zero-g airplane flights (a commercial vomit comet) |
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Commercial Spaceports
| Florida: Cape Canaveral Spaceport www.spaceflorida.gov |
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| Florida: Cecil Field Spaceport www.cecilfieldspaceport.com |
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| Mojave Air and Space Port mojaveairport.com The first FAA licensed space port from which SpaceShipOne won the XPrize |
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| Oklahoma: Oklahoma Spaceport www.okspaceport.state.ok.us |
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| Spaceport America, New Mexico spaceportamerica.com Primary spaceport for Virgin Galactic space tourism flights |
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| Spaceport Colorado www.ftg-airport.com |
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| Virginia: Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport www.marsspaceport.com |
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Astronaut Training
| NASTAR Center www.nastarcenter.com Aviation, space tourist, and astronaut training facility |
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Space Tourism Agencies
| Incrediable Adventures www.incredible-adventures.com Broad range of hi-end adventures including space related packages. |
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| Orbital Outfitters www.orbitaloutfitters.com Maker of affordable space suits for space tourists and pilots. |
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| Space Adventures www.spaceadventures.com Space tourism service company, including flights to the Moon. Company chairman is Eric Anderson. |
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| Virgin Galactic www.virgingalactic.com Sir Richard Branson’s space tourism company providing suborbital flights using WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo |
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NewSpace Releated Conferences
| International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) www.ispcs.com |
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| International Space Development Conference isdc.nss.org Annual Conference of the National Space Society. |
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| Next-Gen Suborbital Researchers Conference nsrc.swri.org Sponsored by the Southwest Research Institute |
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| Responsive Space Conference www.responsivespace.com Site provides access to past conference presentations and papers. |
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| Space Foundation’s National Space Symposium www.nationalspacesymposium.org |
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| Space Frontier Foundation NEWSPACE Conference newspace.spacefrontier.org |
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| Space Tech Expo www.spacetechexpo.com |
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Space Organizations
| Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) www.commercialspaceflight.org |
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| Google Lunar X Prize www.googlelunarxprize.org |
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| Google Lunar X Prize Facebook Page www.facebook.comgooglelunarxprize |
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| International Association of Space Entrepreneurs (IASE) www.spaceentrepreneurs.ning.com |
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| NASA Flight Opportunities Program flightopportunities.nasa.gov This program solicits and competitively selects research technology payloads for flight on a variety of launch providers. |
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| National Space Society www.nss.org The Chicago Society for Space Studies is a chapter of the National Space SOciety. |
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| Overview Institute www.overviewinstitute.org |
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| Rocket Racing League www.rocketracingleague.com |
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| Space Access Society www.space-access.org |
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| Space Angeles Network www.spaceangelsnetwork.com |
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| Space Tourism Society spacetourismsociety.org |
Relevant Books
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